SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS Alfred Robot System, $?, by ThinkLimited, is a flexible, expandable hardware/software system for teaching the basics of robotics. Created in England, the package makes use of graduated exercises to teach students, from grammar school to the university level, the theory and application of robotics principles, especially those involved in industrial robotics. The included software enables students to build-up complex sequences of robotic motion in step-by-step modules, even displaying motor positions so the student-user is able to correlate software instructions with robot motion. Fractal Pro V 5.0, $149.95, by MegageM, is the latest version of MegageM's popular and powerful fractal program. Version 4 was previously described in NewsFlash in this way: "FractalPro, Version 4.0 ($99.95) is an enhanced version of MegageM's fractal art and animation program. It now is able to create both 'tween' fractal sequences or Julia Set Cascade sequences between any two Mandelbrot or Cube Mandelbrot sets or images. It is also able to generate fractal-based, Digital Elevation Maps for 3-D scene creation, using the Vista software packages by Virtual Reality. Last, FractalPro has six new animation modes, including the ability to 'pan' in eight directions." To these features has been added support for the 68881/2 math FPU, 68040 compatibility, an ARexx port, 4 completely new fractal formulae, and the ability to save images in HAM or 24-bit hi-res format (the program routinely calculates and displays Julia, Mandelbrot and cube set images with a 256 color palette). Lissa, $35, by Technical Tools, is a Lissajous curve generator able to generate this class of curves as path objects for users of Imagine or TurboSilver. What is a Lissajous curve? Well, if you were to swing a pendulum over some sand, the pattern traced in the sand would be a two- dimensional Lissajous curve. Imagine this motion being applied to a sphere, and you have the kind of curves or paths Lissa is able to generate. These paths may then be used in a variety of ways (e.g., as motion paths or as the basis for extruding objects) by the 3-D modeller. Object paths permit remote control, by either an ARexx port, or through a simple interface window for manipulating sinusoid motions over a sphere. Maple V for AmigaDOS 2.0, $450 (a $55 discount is available for students), by Waterloo Maple Software, is not only THE finest interactive mathematical program available for the Amiga, it is quite possibly THE best for ANY computer platform, its only serious rival being "Mathematica" (unavailable for the Amiga at this time, except for those with UNIX). The program includes a library with over 2,000 mathematical functions -- as well as packages for analytic, Euclidean and projective geometry; Newman-Penrose formalism; student calculus; linear algebra; combinatories; logic; group theory; Lie symmetries; number theory; Groebner bases; statistical analysis; fast Fourier transforms; differential forms; simplex-linear optimization, etc. If this is not enough, Maple includes its own Pascal-like programming language, so users can create their own functions or super-functions (since most of Maple's functions are written in this language, it is a simple matter to print out their source code to learn programming technique); and for 'C' lovers, it includes a Maple-to-C translation utility. The program works on all Amigas, from the A1000 through the A3000 series; and requires 2 MB of RAM and 8-10 MB of (hard) disk space. Version 5 is AmigaDOS 2.0 compatible (and ONLY 2.0 compatible!), has online help and an ARexx port, and sports a completely rewritten graphical interface, one with 3-D color graphics. The program can display 2- and 3-D graphics, without output options including IFF files, interactive 3-D PostScript, and a plethora of printers. Mark's Math Lab, $49.95, by EasyScript!, is a mathematics program for teaching, exploring or displaying those mathematical functions likely to be encountered by high school or university math students. The program incorporates 34 built-in mathematical functions, together with a useful selection of graphing options. The function-requesters can accept up to 150 or 225 characters -- with as many as 30 constants and up to 75 tokens or quads per expression. These functions, in turn, may be plotted in either Polar or Cartesian coordinates, with 2-variable functions having the additional option of being plotted with or without hidden surfaces. Additionally, the program includes and Electronic Chalkboard for classroom usage; furnishes default values for functional expressions (for those less experienced in math); and online help, for even greater friendliness. Mark's Math Lab requires 1 MB of RAM and operates with either WorkBench 1.3 or 2.0. MathVISION Library Disks, by Seven Seas, is a set of 4 disks filled with sample formulae, pictures and hooks for use with the MathVISION mathematical calculation and display program. The available titles are: Secrets of an Artist, Animation and 3-D, Mandelbrot Variations, and Complex and Polar Arithmetic. Each retails for $49-79, but one may obtained for free upon purchasing MathVISION or upon persuading a friend to buy the program. P-Stat, $?, by Oxxi, is an interactive package for statistical data analysis. Especially useful for academic or market researchers, the program provides the user with over 50 statistical functions, among them matrix multiplication, addition, transposition, or inversion; logarithmic and non-logarithmic transformations; random number generation (with normal, gamma, and exponential distribution); and formation functions. 25 kinds of graph -- including animated graphs -- are available with P-Stat, for displaying paths, trends and analyses. Data may be entered manually, by means of P-Stat's quasi-spreadsheet interface or by cut-and-pasting ASCII information from such programs as MaxiPlan or SuperPlan. With P-Stat, it is then easy to perform factor analysis, component analysis, one- and two-way analyses of variance, cluster analysis, tabulation, or multi-dimensional scaling on data-sets; processing power is limited only by the amount of available RAM. >>> Programming Aztec C 5.2, $199 ($20 for upgrade; $299 for developers' package), by Manx, is an upgraded version of the popular C-software programming package. It is now compatible with AmigaDOS 2.0, Apple MacIntosh Aztec C and Aztec 680x0 ROM; is ANSI compatible; and includes both library and compiler enhancements. The source level debugger is now bundled with the developers' package. BASIC FooTball, $19.99, by Mahoney Software, is a football game program (American football, that is) written entirely in uncompiled BASIC. The object of the program is to provide a means for learning programming techniques that is as fun and interesting as it is informative. Easy AMOS: First Steps to Programming, £34.99, by Europress Software, is a set of twenty, step-by-step lessons on AMOS programming. The package comes on two disks, and includes a light-hearted user's manual together with three games written in AMOS -- each demonstrating the power hidden within this deceptively easy and increasingly popular programming language. Instinct, $249.95, by Advanced Thinkware, is a set of object-oriented libraries that bring greater ease, speed and power into Intuition programming. The libraries are compatible with Commodore's User Interface Style Guide, and provide the user with not only standardized gadgets, but also with additional user-interface primitives such as matrices, subforms, pop-up fields, variable-length multiple-line text, and scrolling lists. Requiring AmigaDOS 2.0, Instinct also furnishes standardized trigger objects that the programmer can use to launch events such as opening a window or summoning a requester. Finally, the image-objects supplies with Instinct are IFF-ILBM compatible, so brushes may be used to define images. IntuiGen 1.0, $34.95, by J. Miller, provides C-programmers with an easier way to define structures: the program generates definitions for Gadget (Boolean, string and proportional), IntuiText, Menu-Item, NewScreen, and NewWindow structures. The program sports a WYSIWYG user- interface, and allows the user to save and edit code at another time. J Forth Professional 3.0, $179.95, by Delta Research, is an upgraded version of the interactive, commercial-quality programming language. J Forth is more than simply a language, however: it is a complete developmental environment, that allows programmers to create, edit, compile, test, debug, disassemble and examine code -- all within the same system. A complete set of AmigaDOS "Include" files is provided with the package, as are example programs, and IFF toolbox, source level debugger, integrated text editor, assignable function keys; ARexx accessibility, and an extensive manual. MultiTrace 1.0, $89, by Altofirma Software, is a debugging tool for users of SAS/C. Housed in a link library, the program is intended to help developers determine how a program behaves in a multitasking environment; it can trace concurrent tasks simultaneously. With MultiTrace, the programmer can change execution speed of a task or program -- or pause and step individual tasks -- or, using the MakeTrace utility, generate C-function prototypes or create headerfiles. What is more, MultiTrace allows the user move and resize trace windows (or locate them on a custom screen), display hex dumps of memory or string data, display messages and variables with printf syntax, or restrict trace reports to specific levels of function or function-call. Playfield AMOS Newsletter, $20/year (sample issue for $1.00), by Playfield, is a journal providing AMOS-specific articles, code and documentation for interested AMOS users and programmers. Subtitled "The Journal of Creative Amiga Programming with AMOS", the newsletter comes out 6 times a year. QVCS, 1.1, $129 (free upgrade to owners of 1.0), by Quma, is an improved version of Quma's software tracking and control system. With QVCS (Quma Version Control System), the tracking of files as they change during use and development is automated; versions are kept separate, and 'collisions' between different developers working on the same project are averted. The package consists of 11 CLI utilities that do such things as keep track of the differences between different revisions (saving the differences to a single file), control multi-tasking on networks, coordinating multiple-users of a file; tracking files and retrieving older versions, etc. Among the new features found in version 1.1 are: keyword support; support for branching and merging; a utility for locating QVCS words in a variety of files; an editing utility to transform one version of a file into another by executing an editing script; lock-file protection; and protection from accidental file deletion. STS Lib, £20, by SciTech, is a British-designed set of routines for faster and easier Intuition programming under both AmigaDOS 1.3 and 2.0. The library replaces or supplements the gadtools library, providing routines for pen selection, menu building, window and requester creation, IntuiText structures, drawing, and gadgets of many varieties, including Boolean, cycle, radio- or check- button, and text gadgets.